One of the most talked about topics in the video game industry over the past few years has been that of trade shows and how they should fit into the business. Publishers and gamers have differing opinions then when the expo holders themselves get involved things can get a bit messy. This article will look at a comparison of this year's two biggest gaming shows in the United States: E3 and PAX. Delivering a show that equates to an experience every gamer dreams of, the Penny Arcade Expo may in fact be the most exalted gaming show/festival in the country right now.
With the death of E3 – or whatever you want to call its current state of affairs – the Penny Arcade Expo is gaming heaven for gamers, developers, publishers and thousands of other people. The evidence of this can be seen with E for All – the only other game show to receive the approval of the ESA– being pushed back to October after it was scheduled to run side-by-side with PAX 2008.
Originally scheduled for August 28-30, E for All is now scheduled for October 3-5 and doesn’t have nearly as much support from the publisher and developer aspect as PAX 2008 has.
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Matter of fact, PAX – which is held in Seattle, Washington – is now publically planning a second show for the east cost by 2010. As you can tell, PAX is only getting bigger.
E3 first debuted in 1995 and continued to get bigger in scale up until 2007; this is when the ESA moved the event to hotels located throughout Santa Montica. Now with E3 firmly holding onto the sheets of its deathbed, it may be time to finally call it quits for this archaic dinosaur and let PAX continue to roll on as its unofficial successor.
While PAX may not be the only show worthy of contending for this spot as “biggest gaming show in America,” it surely is the one that has the most support from the industry at this current time. The other show that’s in question to expand is Gen Con that has been around since 1968, but they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 11, 2008.
What does PAX have that E3 currently does? For starters, it has tournaments for Call of Duty 4, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Team Fortress 2, Carcassonne (Tabletop), Settlers of Catan (Tabletop), Soul Calibur IV, Guitar Hero 3, World of Warcraft, Battlefield Heroes, Halo 3 and Starcraft. Rooms and rooms of free-play featuring every gaming system you can think of, and the longest gaming tournament ever created.
Outside of those dozen or so tournaments, there are concerts to enjoy, nonstop presentations by many of the finest developers in the industry today, lounges to chat with fellow gamers, and much more.
Attendance is rising and so is the pressure for PAX to continue to improve every year. We have great confidence in the creators of PAX, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, to ante up the competition in terms of providing a miraculous show full of excitement. The same can’t be said with E3 as we only hope that one day the ESA smartens up and either cancels next year’s show – if it remains the zombified version it currently is -- or brings back the behemoth from pre-2007. Only time will tell, stay tuned!
